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A good strategy can make you a blackjack master

Except for poker, online casino games depend almost exclusively on luck and that’s why at the end of the day it is vital to be aware of the house edge. Blackjack is an exception to the rule, because on one hand it has one of the lowest house edges of all online casino games, on the other it rewards players who have a coherent strategy. Luck is still important, but skill plays the central role and that’s why on the long run those who play by the ear are less successful than those who know exactly what they’re doing.

To improve your skills up to the level at which it actually makes a difference is not too difficult, but the learning curve gets particularly steep after you learn the basics. First of all, players need to learn when it is worth hitting and when they shouldn’t stand, based on not only the cards dealt to them but also the ones exposed by the dealer. These two elements in conjunction are vital for weaving a coherent strategy, but in the end players need to accept the fact that card counting is the essential piece of the puzzle.

The idea is that even though you know exactly when it is wise to ask for another card and when you should stand patiently and hope for the dealer to go bust, this won’t offset the house edge. It would only reduce it to values that are manageable and will make you marginal losing blackjack player, but this is not why people choose this game in the first place. The same applies to baccarat which is played by very similar rules and in both cases it is worth getting familiar with basic card counting techniques.

Practice makes perfect and that’s why both baccarat and blackjack players are advised to count cards in the comfort of their home to get used with the process. It is much easier to do it out of scrutiny when you have all the time in the world and don’t play for real money than in a live casino where everyone is watching your moves. The goal is to know how many big cards are left in the pack so that you factor this element in when deciding whether to keep or stand.

Things turn interesting over the Internet, where online software developers are offering several variants of blackjack and baccarat. The rules of the games are slightly tweaked and players need to go over them carefully, to make sure they choose the game that presents them with the best odds of winning. Once this obstacle is out of their way, they need to adjust their card counting strategy depending on how many decks are used. The more decks are in play, the more difficult it is to keep track of dealt cards and that’s why it is better when possible, to choose your baccarat game based on this factor.